1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speaker mounting system that eliminates the need for a tile bridge.
2. The Prior Art
High quality speakers designed for mounting in suspended ceilings commonly comprise a front bezel and grill and have a back-can that fully encloses all the parts of the speaker assembly. The back-can, in addition to its acoustic purpose, protects the speaker and other components from dust and damage as well as often acting as a fire block. Back-cans are typical but not always required. Mounting these types of speakers in a suspended ceiling tile usually requires an additional bracket, commonly referred to as a tile bridge, to transfer the speaker's weight onto the suspended ceiling grid structure and off of the non-load bearing ceiling tiles. A tile bridge is required to rigidly span the entire width of the ceiling tile. The typical tile bridge has two structural rails to span the tile width and a sheet metal deck fastened between the rails and having a central hole larger than the diameter of the speaker to be supported. A very common ceiling tile width is 24″.
It is often desirable for the manufacturer to supply the tile bridge with the speaker product. However, including the tile bridge along with the speaker presents some packaging challenges due to the 24″ length of the tile bridge. Typically, the speaker being supported is much smaller in all dimensions than the tile bridge. This leads to excessive unused space in the box of a speaker packaged to include the tile bridge. This excessive space affects the cost of shipping and warehousing as well cost of the product itself. To avoid the problem of excessive empty space, many manufacturers will sell the speakers in sets of two, so the combined package dimensions are more accommodating of the 24″ tile bridge. Obviously, this is not an optimum situation, especially for speakers that may not be used in pairs. Tile bridges are typically made of formed sheet metal or extruded aluminum pieces because of their necessary rigidity. The cost of these raw materials and the quantities in which they are used in a tile bridge significantly increases the cost of the product. The costs and difficulties of packaging the speaker and tile bridge are clear.
High quality speakers designed for mounting in suspended ceiling commonly use an integral clamping system, and when installed in the ceiling, only the front bezel and grille of the speaker are visible, with the back-can enclosure, if included, protruding into the void behind the suspended ceiling. The integral clamping system typically pinches the ceiling tile and tile bridge between the speaker's front bezel and several movable clamping arms or clamp dogs. The actuator which moves the clamp dog is typically a screw that is operated from the front of the speaker. The location of the head of the screw actuator on the front of the speaker leads to some difficulties when assembling the speaker, ceiling tile and tile bridge together. It is quite common when installing speakers in suspended ceilings to remove the ceiling tile, modify and assemble it with the speaker and tile bridge and then return it to its place in the ceiling grid. In this type of assembly process, the ceiling tile and tile bridge are slipped over the rear of the speaker with the speaker facing down, but actuation of the clamp dogs must be done from the front of the speaker. This leads to assembly difficulties since to actuate the screws, the assembly must be turned so the speaker is facing up, but then the ceiling tile and tile bridge fall away from the speaker since they slide on from the back. Obviously some type of fixture to keep all of the components together while actuating the screws must be used to assist in the assembly. A simple drum or garbage can will suffice, but the alignment of the tile bridge with the ceiling is now obscured. It is clear that this method of assembly is inefficient and difficult. Many ceiling speakers may be used in a single installation, which only compounds the inefficiency of this method.
Along with suspended ceilings, these types of high quality speakers with integral clamping systems can be used in hard surfaced wall coverings like wallboard. With this type of material, the speaker is loaded into a hole cut into the ceiling and then the clamp dogs are actuated. Often, no tile bridge or other type of support is needed in this type of installation, due to the inherent strength of the wallboard material. This type of installation is often done blind since the actions of the clamp dogs cannot be observed. To install the speaker through its mounting hole, the clamp dogs must rotate back toward the center of the speaker or the speaker's back-can to avoid interfering with fitting the speaker through its hole. The clamp dogs must then reliably rotate out to overhang the hole edge to allow them to clamp to the wall board. If the speaker needs to be removed, the clamp dogs must reliably rotate back towards the back-can when the clamp dogs are loosened. When removing a speaker like this, it is not uncommon for the installer to overly loosen the clamp dogs, since visibility is impaired. This can cause the clamp dog to unscrew from the screw actuator and fall off completely. Depending on the construction of the clamp and actuator, this may permanently damage the speaker's clamping system. At the very least, this action is annoying and can lead to losing a critical part of the speaker's clamping system.